For its eight season, Bones returns with a full 24 episodes! As the season opens, Bones (Emily Deschanel) is still on the run, Booth (David Boreanaz) has been relegated to the job of desk jockey, and Clark (Eugene Byrd) has taken over for Brennan at the Jeffersonian. But it doesn’t take too long for things to get back to normal with interesting and fun cases of the week.

This season includes the four bonus stand-alone episodes that were ordered as part of the seventh season. One of these is the unique “The Ghost in the Machine”, which is filmed from the point of view of the deceased 14-year-old victim. Other storylines this season include illegal animal trafficking, doomsday preppers, and the five squinterns working together to identity of a man who died as a result of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. But the cases also hit closer to home with one of the squinterns getting infected with a deadly virus, Brennan getting shot, and the return of Christopher Pelant (Andrew Leeds), who starts another deadly cat-and-mouse game with the Jeffersonian gang.

Besides the cases of the week, we also get quite a bit of character development. Booth and Bones struggle to get their relationship back on track after three months apart, while Sweets (John Francis Daley) and Daisy (Carla Gallo) also take a hard look at their own relationship. Angela (Michaela Conlin) reevaluates her choice of giving up her dream to be an artist, and Cam (Tamara Taylor) has a secret romance—and Angela and Hodgins (T.J. Thyne) set out to discover who it is with. We also get to finally meet Booth’s mother.

There’s also a lot of fun at the Jeffersonian with the return of some of our favorite squinterns—Finn Abernathy (Luke Kleintank), Wendell Bray (Michael Grant Terry), Colin Fisher (Joel David Moore), and Arastoo Vaziri (Pej Vahdat)—and the addition of new squintern Dr. Oliver Wells (Brian Klugman), who gets under Brennan’s skin. Storylines include Sweets moving in with Booth and Brennan (and hilarity ensues), Booth and Sweets doing stand-up comedy at an open-mic night, Booth and Brennan going undercover on a TV dance competition series, Angela going undercover as a roller derby skater, and Hodgins and Finn trying to recreate a hot sauce recipe. Some of this season’s guest stars include Ryan O’Neal, Cyndi Lauper, Dave Thomas and Joanna Cassidy

Overall, the eighth season of Bones is another fun, action and drama-packed set of episodes, with some really interesting cases. The Blu-ray looks and sounds excellent, and contains some great but minimal bonus features. I really enjoyed the fan questions featurette, the audio commentary and the gag reel. The Blu-ray also contains a few short deleted scenes and a fan video montage. Fans will definitely want to pick up this set.

What’s Included on the Blu-ray:

Episodes: (1039 min)

• All 24 episodes of Season 8:
  Disc 1: “The Future in the Past”, “The Partners in the Divorce”, “The Gunk in the Garage”, “The Tiger in the Tale”, “The Method in the Madness”
  Disc 2: “The Patriot in Purgatory”, “The Bod in the Pod”, “The But In The Joke”, “The Ghost in the Machine”, “The Diamond in the Rough”
  Disc 3: “The Archaeologist in the Cocoon”, “The Corpse on the Canopy”, “The Twist In The Plot”, “The Doll In The Derby”, “The Shot In The Dark”
  Disc 4: “The Friend In Need”, “The Fact In The Fiction”, “The Survivor in the Soap”, “The Doom in the Gloom”, “The Blood from the Stones”
  Disc 5: “The Maiden in the Mushrooms”, “The Party in the Pants”, “The Pathos in the Pathogens”, “The Secret in the Siege”
• Widescreen 1.78:1
• Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French

Extras:

• Commentary on “The Future in the Past” (43:47)
  Writers Hart Hanson and Stephen Nathan, and director Ian Toynton (all of whom are executive producers) provide audio commentary on the season premiere episode. While the guys are fun and entertaining, they often get lost in watching the episode or go off-topic. They do manage to provide some interesting behind-the-scenes tidbits—when they’re not discussing Brennan’s horrible wig.
• Deleted Scenes (2:55)
  Three short deleted scenes appear on the discs containing their respective episodes
  • Deleted Scene from “The Patriot in Purgatory” (:56)
  • Deleted Scene from “The Survivor in the Soap” (1:00)
  • Deleted Scene from “The Party in the Pants” (:59)
• Dying to Know: Bones Answers Your Questions! (9:00)
  Executive Producer Stephen Nathan, and cast members David Boreanaz (“Special Agent Seeley Booth”), T.J. Thyne (“Dr. Jack Hodgins”), Michael Grant Terry (“Wendell Bray”), Emily Deschanel (“Dr. Temperance ‘Bones’ Brennan”), John Francis Daley (“Dr. Lance Sweets”), Patricia Belcher (“Caroline Julian”), Tamara Taylor (“Dr. Camille Saroyan”), Michaela Conlin (“Angela Montenegro”), read and respond to questions sent in by fans.
• Bare Bones: Total Fandom-onium (1:59)
  T.J. Thyne introduces a montage and compilation of videos sent in by fans of the series.
• Gag Reel (5:26)
  Fun montage of the cast cracking up, forgetting their lines and goofing around on set.

Final Thoughts:

In its eighth season Bones continues to churn out fun, action-packed episodes with interesting cases-of-the-week as well as dramatic character development. The Blu-ray looks and sounds excellent, and contains some great bonus features including a fan questions featurette, a season premiere audio commentary and a fun gag reel. This is an easy recommendation for fans of the series.